I tracked Zac Sunderland who is the youngest to successfully circumnavigate the world sailing.He was 16 when he started. Now his 15 year old sister wants to do it.It was such a scary and dangerous trip for Zac. Scary on the ocean with pirates and crzy weather.http://www.zacsunderland.com/We have been helping Zac at Hops. Since he finished he has been like a Rock star and too busy for us.

sailing! nice. That is what I did this last weekend (10/25), it was a less competitive event than usual...http://blog.beatsarcoma.org/check out the pictures, I am the one blowing up the balloon at the bottom of the blog entry.

sailing! nice. That is what I did this last weekend (10/25), it was a less competitive event than usual...http://blog.beatsarcoma.org/check out the pictures, I am the one blowing up the balloon at the bottom of the blog entry.

In the recently posted article, it quotes someone as saying that the girl's motive is not the record, but just to sail.

BS. It is about the record.

She is going to sail on a 26 foot yacht? That is a VERY small boat. She is a very inexperienced sailor. It is emblematic, that she'd not even had an appropriate first aid course, and had not seen the need for it. This is the problem with people of that age....they cannot see that bad things might happen.....and on these voyages, they DO happen.

One of the most difficult things in these types of voyages, is the need to keep watch, 24/7. When do you sleep? It is very problematic. And yet, how to you keep a watch on what is going on? You trust to luck.

A very telling tale, is that of the first, Robin Knox-Johnston, in "A world of my own". Truly hair raising, at a time when none of the electronic safety stuff existed. However, he was a professional sailor, with many years of experience on the high seas.

This chick sounds like a typical clueless teenager, not fathoming what is possible.

I don't agree with this, I don't agree with the progressively younger attempts on Everest, or even such things on Whitney.

The statement:

"The good news today is that we have established Laura is capable of making this voyage," her lawyer, Peter de Lange, said.

is just so wrong on so many levels. The ocean establishes whether Laura is capable, not a court, and not some oaffish self-serving lawyer.

I was wondering if you have an opinion on the subject Ken?LOL!!I agree with you completely on this.This is a great line Ken."The ocean establishes whether Laura is capable, not a court"I followed Zac Sunderlands sail around the world.You are right about keeping watch as there were days without sleep. Storms, pirates,boredom, mechanical problems,electronic issues,food storage, preparation and an appetite are just a few of the constant moment by moment issues for at least a year on the seas.

World record keepers should abolish age as something to be beaten, because it will lead to tragedy.

And in all of these things, eventually that will happen. And at that point, it will be the fault of the particular parent (it will seem), and they will take a lot of heat. But are those parents any worse than the ones that sent their child out, and the kid was lucky? Not in my estimation.

In the pro-level mountaineering community, there has been a controversy for years about whether it is responsible for a parent to go into dangerous terrain, such as K2. This has particularly been true of mothers who where killed with very young children. I remember Rob Hall calling from the top of Everest, and speaking to his pregnant wife, as he was dying. These people have taken a LOT of heat, but were they any less irresponsible, than the parent who successfully summitted?

I hear what you are saying about parents, Steve, and their motivations. I can't help but think that there is something warped there, in these attempts. Does that come from the current concept that every child is "exceptional" in Every Way? That they are the 1 out of 100 that survives..everything?

A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations. On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?"

"If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

Notable was the pirate scare. In October, he was 150 miles beyond Indonesia, on a course from Australia to the Cokos Keeling Islands, when he encountered a mysterious boat. The 60-foot wooden vessel did not appear on his radar screen.He tried unsuccessfully to raise its crew on the radio. He changed direction; it changed direction.

Winds were light and he could not escape, so he clutched his satellite phone -- his lifeline -- and dialed his home in Thousand Oaks.

A sister answered. Laurence Sunderland heard his son's panicked voice, grabbed the phone and rushed into his office. Zac's heart raced as he digested the instructions: Load your pistol and flare gun, then issue a radio security alert with your position.

Fire a warning shot if necessary, but at the first sign of aggression, shoot to kill because they'll try to kill you.

Laurence recalls: "For two hours we're sitting here not knowing what the situation was or whether Zac could handle it."